Nelson Mandela

Address to the ANC Youth League conference, 1951

Mankind as whole is today standing on the threshold of
great events - events that at times seem to threaten its very existence. On the one hand
are those groups, parties, or persons that are prepared to go to war in defence of
colonialism, imperialism, and their profits. These groups, at the head of which stands the
ruling circles in America, are determined to perpetuate a permanent atmosphere of crisis
and fear in the world. Knowing that a frightened world cannot think clearly, these groups
attempt to create conditions under which the common men might be inveigled into supporting
the building of more and more atomic bombs, bacteriological weapons, and other instruments
of mass destruction. These crazy men whose prototype is to be found at the head of the
trusts and cartels of America and Western Europe do not realise that they will suffer the
destruction that they are contemplating for their innocent fellow beings. But they are
desperate and become more so as they realise the determination of the common men to
preserve peace. Yes, the common man who for generations has been the tool of insane
politicians and governments, who has suffered privations and sorrow in wars that were of
profit to tiny privileged groups, is today rising from being the object of history [to]
becoming the subject of history. For the ordinary men and women in the world, the
oppressed all over the world are becoming the conscious creators of their own history.
They are pledged to carve their destiny and not to leave it in the hands of tiny ruling
circles - or classes. Whilst the dark and sinister forces in the world are organising a
desperate and last-minute fight to defend a decadent and bankrupt civilisation, the common
people, full of confidence and buoyant hope, struggle for the creation of a new, united,
and prosperous human family. That this is so can be gathered from the increasingly
militant and heroic struggle that is being waged in all colonial countries against heavy
odds. Our mother body has in clean and unmistakable terms indicated in which camp we are
in the general world contest. We are with the oppressed all over the world and are
irrevocably opposed to imperialism in any form.

In Africa the colonial powers - Great Britain, Portugal,
France, Italy, Spain, and their servitors in South Africa - are attempting with the help
of the notorious American ruling class to maintain colonial rule and oppression. Millions
of pounds are pouring into the continent in the form of capital for the exploitation of
our resources in the sole interests of the imperialist powers. So-called geological and
archaeological expeditions are roaming the continent ostensibly engaged in gathering
material for the advancement of science and the furtherance of humanity but being in
reality the advance guard of American penetration. It is important for us and for the
African people as a whole to realise that but for the support of American finance it would
have been difficult if not impossible for the Western colonial powers to maintain rule in
Africa, nor indeed anywhere in the world. In thinking of the direct enemies of the African
people, namely, Great Britain, Spain, France, Portugal, Italy and S.A. [South Africa], we
must never forget the indirect enemy, the infinitely more dangerous enemy who sustains all
those with loans, capital, and arms.

In common with people all over the world, humanity in
Africa is fighting these forces. In the Gold Coast a situation exists which is capable of
being translated into complete victory for the people. [events] in Nigeria are leading to
a similar situation. In French West Africa, the Democratic Rally of African People is
leading the people into what is virtually open war against the French imperialists. In
Egypt the heroic struggle is being waged which must receive the support of all genuine
anti-imperialist forces, albeit with certain reservations. In Uganda the leaders of the
Bataka Association who were condemned to fourteen years of imprisonment have had to be
released as a result of the attitude of the masses. In Central Africa the people saw
through the tricks of the British imperialists who sought to foist a bogus federation
scheme on them. What the rulers have reaped instead is a rejection of partnership,
trusteeship, and white leadership and a clear demand for self-determination and
independence. These are hopeful signs, but precisely because the African liberation
movement is gaining strength the rulers will become more brutal and, in their desperation,
will practice all manner of deception in order to stay on at any rate to postpone the day
of final victory. But history is on the side of the oppressed.

Here in South Africa the situation is an extremely grave
and serious one. The plans of the Broederbond to set up an openly police state have so far
almost run to schedule. About that there can be no question. This is in the interest of
the ruling class in South Africa whether it is nominally in the U.P. [United party] or the
Nationalist party.

The United party represents the mining interests and
also the rapidly rising industrialist power. The Nationalist party represents farming
interests and the growing Afrikaner commercial interest. The farming group as a distinct
and separate interest is, of course, dying out if it is not dead already! The financial
lords are destroying the farmer group, and instead we have huge semi-industrial estates
and plantations through which the big money power seeks to extend its monopoly of economic
South Africa to the agricultural sphere. At one time it was thought that the development
of a powerful industrialist class would produce a clash involving the primitive
feudal-capitalist farming and mining interest on the one hand and the industrialist on the
other. It was thought that this clash might result in a realignment of forces that might
be advantageous to the oppressed people in the country. But it is becoming clear that
there is no possibility of [a] clash between such groups. There is no chance that Sir
Ernest Oppenheimer, the leading mining magnate, will clash with Harry Oppenheimer, the
leading industrialist. There is also noticeable a growing affinity among the English,
Jewish, and Afrikaner financial and industrial interests. It is quite conceivable that all
their interests find the fascist policy of Malan suitable, as it will enable them to
continue their bankrupt role by crushing the tribal union movement and the national
movements of the people. It is true that in the rank-and-file of the white parties are a
number who whilst they support the maintenance of colour as an instrument of white
political and economic supremacy are scared of a naked Hitlerite regime which might later
turn out to be a danger to themselves; hence movements like the now thoroughly discredited
Torch Commando. This white South African people who have lost all their moral backbone
[sic]. The possibility of a liberal capitalist democracy in S.A. [South Africa is]
extremely nil. The propaganda among the whites and their desire to maintain what they
imagine to be a profitable situation make it utterly unthinkable that there can be a
political alignment that favours a liberal white group. In any case the political
immorality, cowardice, and vacillations of the so-called progressives among whites render
them utterly useless as a force against fascism.

The situation is developing [in] the direction of an
openly fascist state. The Broederbond is the centre of the fascist ideology in this
country, but like other things it is itself merely an instrument of the ruling circles
which are to be found in all white parties. The commandos are the nucleus of a future
Gestapo. The acts passed by the government, in particular the Suppression of Communism
Amendment Act and the Group Areas Act, provide the readymade framework for the
establishment of the fascist state. True to the pattern depicted for the rest of the
imperialist world, South African capitalism has developed [into] monopolism and is now
reaching the final stage of monopoly capitalism gone mad, namely, fascism.

But the development of fascism in the country is an
indication of the fear they have [of] the people. They realise that their world is a dying
world and that the appearance of impregnable strength is a mere facade. The new world is
the one in which the oppressed Africans live. They see before their eyes the growth of a
mighty people's movement. The struggles of 1950 were an indication that the leaders of the
Africans and their allies were fully aware of the weakest link in the chain of white
supremacy. The labour power of the African people is a force which when fully tapped is
going to sweep the people to power in the land of their birth. True, the struggle will be
a bitter one. Leaders will be deported, imprisoned, and even shot. The government will
terrorise the people and their leaders in an effort to halt the forward march; ordinary
forms of organisation will be rendered impossible. But the spirit of the people cannot be
crushed, and no matter what happens to the present leadership, new leaders will arise like
mushrooms till full victory is won.